Throw Yourself into the Prairie. Francesca Chabrier

      

      THROW YOURSELF INTO THE PRAIRIE

      © 2014 by Francesca Chabrier

      FIRST EDITION

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. Please direct inquiries to:

      Managing Editor

      Sarabande Books, Inc.

      2234 Dundee Road, Suite 200

      Louisville, KY 40205

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Chabrier, Francesca, 1983–

      [Poems. Selections]

      Throw yourself into the prairie : poems / Francesca Chabrier.—First edition.

      pages cm

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-1-936747-73-3

      I. Title.

      PS3603.H28T57 2014

      811'.6—dc23

      2013011706

      Cover image by Emily Hunt.

      Cover and text design by Kirkby Gann Tittle.

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Sarabande Books is a nonprofit literary organization.

The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supportsSarabande Books with state tax dollars and federal fundingfrom the National Endowment for the Arts.

       for my friends and my family

      CONTENTS

Prologue

Peach Some Laid Their Hands On

Chapter One

The Popular Tree

Cheek Against Soft Pumpkin Fur

The White Machine

A Place for Everything

The World Has Turned and Left Me Here

       September

       Chapter Two

       The End of the Lonesome Era

       Gerard

       Coffee Makes People Smart

       Instructions on How To

       Bad Night, Good Morning

       When I Look Up and See / I Am Walking

       Chapter Three

       The Beautiful Poem

       Chapter Four

       *

       Low

       I Will Break the Silence in Holland Appaloosa

       An Announcement

       I Will See You Outside/ A Little Heap

       Poem for Pittsburgh

       Chapter Five

       The Axioms

       Chapter Six

       This is About

       In the Valley on a Hill

       Leave of Absence

       Countdown to Summer

       Things Often Happen Strangely

       Pretty Young Thing

       Milk Bottle Poem

       Chapter Seven

       The Blizzard

       Epilogue

       Lay Fallen

       Acknowledgments

       The Author

PROLOGUE

PEACH SOME LAID THEIR HANDS ON

      Peach some laid their hands on and they fell off.

      An afternoon meal of peaches.

      A cloud does not dapple the sky: they are in touch

      the peach in the heat

      and the slow-moving hands.

      A litter of peaches squished

      and one peeling itself in the shade.

      I am who loves it here.

      I eat a peach with my whole mouth

      and can see everything.

      Peach is French for a feeling

      like be still be exactly still.

CHAPTER ONE

THE POPULAR TREE

      There is a popular tree

      that lives year round.

      Maybe it will live forever

      who knows

      there is no one

      that can touch it.

      People come

      from all around

      to see the popular tree.

      It holds a nest

      made out of gloves.

      I should say that the tree

      is not gigantic. It is

      about as big as a man

      of average size

      without a head

      or shoulders.

      The tree is

      so incredible that

      when I walk up to it,

      my legs shake.